Club Of The Year – Thanks for Your Support

Our sincere thanks to everyone who’s supported Essex Ham over the years, resulting in the group being awarded National Winner in the RSGB Club of the Year Award at this weekend’s National Hamfest.

Essex Ham started as a personal website in 2011, and has slowly grown in size and scope since then. Essex Ham became an RSGB-affiliated club in 2014, and at the time of writing, we have 1,246 members (431 in Essex, 636 elsewhere in the UK, and 179 overseas). Throughout the club’s existence, our three core principles have remained, and we believe its these that have led to us being recognised in this year’s RSGB awards:

To Promote the hobby

To Support amateurs & clubs

To Share information

Members accepting the award on behalf of Essex Ham, from Peter Waters and RSGB President Dave Wilson

So many people have helped to contribute to Essex Ham’s success, and if we were to start listing names and achievements, we’d have a very long list. In summary, we’d like to thank those who’ve contributed in any of the following ways:

Turning up and supporting our various special events and field days

Taking part in our regular nets

Providing content and articles for our site

Spreading the word about what Essex Ham does

Providing proactive suggestions and ideas

Following us on social media, contributing and sharing

Providing help and advice to others, either online at our site, via social media, or at Essex Ham events

Responding to our surveys – it’s important to find out what our members want, and we learn this from member feedback

In the four years that we’ve been an RSGB-affilaited club, we’ve achieved a heck of a lot, and we really think we’ve made a difference. Here are just some of the achievements that so many of our members have helped with over the last four years:

Regular field days – For an online club, we meet in the real-world surprisingly often – We’ve been out at our preferred Galleywood and Shoebury venues 19 times this year so far!

Club Support – Promoting and taking part in other club’s events, our shared calendar, press coverage, Essex Speakers Directory, website support, plus sharing club resources and training material with other clubs

Nets – Regular weekly nets on a Monday, plus the monthly YL nets. Over 110 people took part last year. (An average of 13 people per net, and a peak of 21)

Newcomer support – We have a growing collection of reviews, videos and guides on the website, and hundreds of free “Getting Started Guides” have been given away at events such as the Essex Skills Night and the Canvey Rally. The Nets, Forum and our field days continute to be places where newcomers come for help and advice

Press – We’ve appeared in print and on radio many times in recent years, to help promote the hobby – not just for Essex Ham activities, but for events run by other clubs and amateurs too

Other Organisations – TX Factor approached Essex Ham to help with the RSGB 21st Century Hobby video, we’ve spoken at the RSGB Convention, have taken part in several activities with ExploreSTEM and Southend Tech, contributed to the RSGB Syllabus Review, and most recently, have been working with GB1NHS on some exciting ideas around linking amateur radio to NHS activities

Dorothy M0LMR being interviewed about the award by Martin from the ICQ Podcast

It’s the members and supporters of Essex Ham that make it what it is. Sincere thanks to everyone who’s helped out over the years. There may be some challenging times ahead for the hobby, which requires us to work together, set aside any differences, be positive and push forward on supporting and growing the hobby. Here’s hoping Essex Ham and its members can continue to work together and drive change for many years to come.

Our thanks to the RSGB for awarding us the title of Club of the Year 2017, and to the event sponsor Waters & Stanton. It means a lot!

We were founded as a virtual club – a different type of club to the traditional amateur radio club. Our group mainly meets online (forum and chatroom) and on the radio (nets). We also meet at field days and social get-togethers (and we have had over 20 much meetings this year)

There’s an increasing number of clubs, special interest & contest groups out there who operate in a different way to traditional bricks-and-mortar clubs. Another local example is the Essex CW Club (who won Region 12 Club of the Year in 2010). It’s great that the hard work of our members has been recognised this year.

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